This project was fun for the students. We studied Picasso although this is not a cubist project by any means. 1: print off a crap ton of s...

A few weeks ago, second and third grade students listened to a song and responded by drawing and writing. Check out the second/third ...

2012/2013 Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra video Harpist - Janelle Nadeau Meet the Orchestra & free music Peter & the Wolf ...

I have frequently been asked and I have seen similar questions posted on Kodaly and Music Ed Facebook groups. "I am interested in learning ...

Welcome to the first installment of my new weekly linky party, Fermata Fridays! This is a chance for music education bloggers to share blog posts with readers and bloggers alike, so we can all mingle and learn from each other. Readers, you are going to love all of the awesome blog posts that are out there- I hope you discover some new blogs to follow and get some new inspiration for your teaching! Bloggers, make sure you read the directions carefully before linking up to make sure we keep the party fun for everyone. Thanks! :) Here are the rules for the linky party: 1. Add the linky image to your blog post, blog sidebar, linky party roundup, or other similar location on your blog and link it back to the party. Copy and paste the code for this button, or use the image above and link to the label "Fermata Fridays". 2. Add up to two blog post links to the linky. The posts can be old or new (but no posts that have already been linked up to Fermata Fridays in the past), on any topic related to music teaching, but must not be primarily featuring a product. It's fine to have a link to a relevant product within a post, but that should not be the primary focus of the post. I reserve the right to delete a link that is too product-focused. If you're not sure, just ask! :) 3. Leave a thoughtful comment on at least two other links, including the one right before yours. Add #fermatafridays to your comment so bloggers know where you found them! 4. Pin at least one other link to one of your Pinterest boards. 5. Make sure you are following me on Pinterest. I will be pinning every link to the Fermata Fridays board each week. 6. Make sure you are following me on Facebook and check back next Friday- I will be featuring one of the links from the previous week's linky on my Facebook page each Friday! The linky will be open every Friday starting at 4:00am EST and will be open for links all day. An InLinkz Link-up

So I was walking through Education Express the other night and found these: I looked at them and immediately thought of Boomwhackers! These would be perfect as the colors (except the blue) match to C pentatonic! So I came up with this idea: Using these: This will be a fun center to add... I love using Boomwhackers for composition! I also came up with another one using one of the die written with letters in C pentatonic for Orff Instruments: I have another project in mind with the rest of the colored dice and it's also a composition project- hope to finish that one after school today! TWO DAYS LEFT!! WAHOO!!

Discover the Elements of Music and their meanings so you can improve your music appreciation skills as a musician, performer and composer.

HAND, HAND, FINGERS, THUMB by Al Perkins is a text I use with my kindergarten classes each year. If read properly, it is filled with rhyth...

MUSIC ED TECH TALK A podcast and blog exploring music, education, technology, and the intersections between them.

Earlier in the year, I used a caterpillar rhythm activity with my older student to help review basic rhythms. I still use the ones I've created as large rhythm cards for the younger students. Building upon that idea, I created Caterpillar Rhythm Cards. There are many ways to use these cards: 1. In PowerPoint, as cards to have students read or play projected on the screen. I like to do this at the beginning of class (and not every class) to assess student learning. Students like to read or play these rhythms alone as well. If you have a SmartBoard, or if you've showed your students how to use the pens and hilighters in PowerPoint (I have and they are better at it than me), they can pinpoint and label specific rhythms in the pattern. 2. "Rhythm of the Day" card - this is great for older students. Set a card on a music stand or display it somewhere in the room. Have the students point out the time signature and label the rhythms the pattern is comprised of. Then, have them count the rhythms using syllables of your choice. Another fun thing to do is have them play the pattern on an instrument or add body percussion. When adding body percussion, you create the movements or have the students do this. You can have them use one movement (for example, clapping) for the whole pattern or assign each rhythm or beat a movement (for example, clap quarter notes but pat eighth notes). 3. Flashcards for drilling and practicing - Print out the cards on cardstock and laminate them. Then, you can use them as large flashcards that the entire class can see. They can also be used in stations. My students are used to quizzing each other with flashcards so this works well for them. They know that if they get it wrong, it goes in one pile to try again, and they keep working until all patterns are in the "I got this correct" pile. One student could hold the flashcard while another plays it on an instrument. I'll be using the patters from Level 1-3 with my recorder players to do this. 4. Composition activities: Students can put the patterns into groups to create their own piece (they'll have to ignore the double barline). I've also put in blank caterpillars in both Word and PowerPoint so you or your students can create their own. If you print out a blank caterpillar, students can create their own with marker. Here is the activity the students did at the beginning of the year (look below for steps and suggestions): These pair well with the flashcard set and are so easy to make. Here's how I made them: 1. Start with a sentence strip of your choice of color. To do this on the cheap side, by a white sentence strip and the students can decorate it. 2. I used circle cut-outs from our die-cut machine and construction paper. When the students created them, I punched the circles on white paper so they could color their own. After coloring (if applicable) glue them down like you see here. For the "tail end", I simply drew that shape and added the repeat sign (you could use a bar line or double bar line). When the students created their own, I gave them a page with the four body circles and a page with the head, time signature circle, antennae, and tail. The students colored everything, cut it out, and pasted it on the caterpillar. 3. Draw the rhythms on the caterpillar. You will need to decided which rhythms you'd like your students to use. 4. Glue on the eyes (so cute) For younger grades: You may consider having everything at least cut out, if not pasted. I would also use construction paper so the students don't have to color everything. The students had to "present" (read) their rhythm to the class. Then, the class read the rhythm back and then played the rhythm on rhythm sticks. We strung more than one caterpillar together (see above) to create longer patterns to read and play.

After our school's musical in March, my students are already buzzing about what next year's show will be. To build on this excitement, I often do a series of musical theater lessons in music class. Here are SEVEN musical theater activities that are perfect for the music room. You can create your own activities based

Learn how to practice rhythms with this budget-friendly and fun rhythm game in your elementary music classroom.

I am part of a Facebook Group called "Music Ed Blogs". We are a group of dedicated music teachers who blog regularly and love to share ideas and learn! As part of Music in Our Schools month, we are taking turns posting each day on one aspect of rhythm. Today is my turn and I am so excited. I teach Junior Kindergarten through Fourth Grade at an independent (private) school. Therefore, my upper grades are third and fourth. I am going to share some ways to teach sixteenth notes today! So many ideas! The Orange or the Pizza? Say what? Yes, as sixteenth notes (and eighths, and triplets, etc.) are divisions of ONE, and subdivisions of the measure, which has already been divided into duple or triple meter. With me so far? Good. Bring in an orange and a knife, or a pizza.. trust me, orange is easier and smells better; you want kids walking in saying "what a nice smell" instead of "ewww.. smells like stale pizza". Why an orange? It is a beautiful sphere, almost a perfect circle, unlike apples or potatoes which can be weirdly shaped. You want something round to represent a beat. Once your class has learned a song with sixteenth notes and experienced it (in the Orff Approach, experience first, label later), seat your class and dramatically bring out your orange. I slice mine on a music stand with paper towels underneath it.. very fancy. I do this without talking- it's hysterical. Whip out the orange, dramatically approach it with the knife (as in ceremonial sacrifice) and plunge the knife in.. the kids love the drama. Then cut the orange in half. Show each half, then put the orange back together and put pointer finger in the air to show "one". Break it apart and find a visual in your room that shows eighth notes, run over and dramatically point to each note and then to each 1/2 of orange. AHA! Eureka! Connections are being made. Cut each half of orange in half again and voila! Sixteenth notes. Hopefully you have a visual somewhere in your classroom or have written/displayed it on whiteboard. Look around the room and shrug your shoulders. Show each quarter of orange and look around again.. they'll get it and someone will make the connection and woop, woop, what is that note called? This is where you quietly ask if anyone knows the name of that note? This is where I have the students turn and talk about what they just saw me do. Often their "kidspeak" during turn and talk is much better than my instructions and chatter. Following this, we will read the rhythms of a song experienced in class and quickly discover the notes we were singing in (example) "Chicken on a Fencepost" had three sets of sixteenth notes! Then we sing more songs and experience playing and moving with sixteenth notes and then we are ready to create. This sequence should not happen all in one lesson; it takes time. One of my FAVORITE games to play with this is from another blogger, take a look at Tika Tika Tic Tac Toe! And just in time for St. Patty's Day this Friday, remember, too, a four leaf clover is ONE weed/clover with FOUR leaves! Songs For more ideas, here is another post I recently wrote on sixteenth notes. Happy Spring (Almost... almost... almost.. can't wait!)! If you are looking for a (wonderful) list of songs with sixteenth notes, with links to free music, Beth's Notes has it all! Click Here!! Enjoy!

Bow games are a big part of my daily routine in beginning orchestra and I have students do bow games every day for many months. That means that I need to keep bow games interesting so that students don't get bored with doing them. At the start of the year, students are in a new school as 7th graders and they tend to be extra quiet and a little reserved. I want them to bond in my class and start making friends in orchestra as soon as possible. This is one bow game that really helps students have fun together and start opening up. It may be a little roudy for some teachers out there, but I absolutely love it and my students beg to play it over and over. It's great for making your orchestra class FUN! First, I give every student a penny and I have them balance it on their bent thumb. The whole point of this exercise is for students to focus on their thumb as they hold the bow and help them remember that the thumb must stay bent. I have students do all of the regular bow exercises with the penny on their thumb...stir the mush, circle face, arm wave (you can read about all of those on my previous post about bow games). Students try to do all of the exercises without dropping the penny and they start getting just a tad competitive to see who can keep the penny on their thumb the longest. When we get to the elevator bow exercise (holding the bow horizonally and moving it up and down), students put the penny on top of their hand. This is so important for the students to know...that they must keep fingers bent while hold the bow so that the hand is flat! Now to my favorite part. We play a game called Sabotage. When the weather is good, we go outside and spread out. Each student balances the penny and they all run about with their bow and penny and try to knock the penny off of other people's thumbs. The rules are that students may not use their left hand and they must maintain a proper bow hold the entire time. When the penny falls off, they are out and must stand on the side to watch. We play until there is one person left and then the students all beg to do it again. If it's too crazy, you could make another rule...no running. Students really bond during this game and it gets the class lively and fun. So far, I have never had a bow break or anything. I have also used Sabotage as a small classroom game. It works in Minute to Win It as 4 to 6 students compete against each other for one minute.

Music a la Abbott Amy Abbott Kodály Inspired Blog and Elementary Teachers Music Education Resource

Music, culture e beautiful living. Lanciato come blog musicale nel 2012, tmrw è diventato grande trasformandosi in una riviste stampata di musica e cultura multipiattaforma, in cui è possibile trovare contenuti stimolanti di altissima qualità. Il focus principale del magazine rimane la musica indipendente, ma si occupa di tanto altro ancora:  film, moda, politica, arte, design, fotografia, cibo, tecnologia, viaggi e molto altro.tmrw cerca di cambiare la percezione di ciò che dovrebbe essere una rivista. ISSUE 36 - MischiefQuesto volume è dedicato al "dispetto" ed esamina i comportamenti scorretti, ma giocoso, le piccole infrazioni alle regole che finiscono per regalare grandi cambiamenti al sistema, coloro che prendono ciò che è ordinario e lo stravolgono rendendolo straordinario, ma soprattutto personale, assicurandosi di divertirsi e divertire con quello che stanno facendo lungo la strada.

HI — I no longer update this page ~ but “MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES in COMICS ED” is available at my NEW COMICS WORKSHOP site HERE >>… ~ Marek … AND ALSO: Psst! Tea…

I pasticcini mandorle ed arance sono dei biscotti golosi e velocissimi da preparare, basteranno pochi ingredienti ed il gioco è fatto. Ho preparato questi biscotti alle mandorle qualche pomeriggio...